The Special Olympics contributes to peace by its celebration of the value, worth and intrinsic dignity of all peoples.#Canada150

Special Olympics Canada is a national organization founded in 1969 to help people with intellectual disabilities develop self-confidence and social skills through sports training and competition. Renowned for his research on intellectual disabilities, Dr. Hayden is hugely involved in Special Olympics Canada. He studied the motivation behind individuals with intellectual disabilities to succeed in sports. Contrary to common belief that these individuals could not participate in sport because of their disabilities, Dr. Hayden proved that it was actually the lack of opportunity that caused their fitness levels to differ from other individuals without intellectual disabilities. With this knowledge, Dr. Hayden proposed the idea of a national sport competition for individuals with intellectual disabilities to participate in.

At this time, Eunice Kennedy Shriver was working on creating an organization with the same purpose as Dr. Hayden’s proposal, due to her experience with her sister’s intellectual disability. Shriver reached out to Dr. Hayden and the two (amongst others) collaborated to host an event in Chicago, Illinois, which would be known as the first international Special Olympics Summer Games in 1968. In these games, Canada and the US were the only participating countries. Currently, 170 countries compete in the Special Olympic games across the globe. Dr. Hayden is still involved with Special Olympics Canada.

“Let me win, but if I do not win, let me be brave in the attempt.”

Official Special Olympics Athletes’ Oath

Dr. Norman Bethune (d.1939), contributed to peace by his humanitarian medical work, particularly in conflict zones. #Canada150

He was a Canadian physician, medical innovator, and noted anti-fascist. Bethune came to international prominence first for his service as a frontline surgeon supporting the democratically elected Republican government during the Spanish Civil War. But it was his service with the Communist Eighth Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War that would earn him enduring acclaim. Dr. Bethune effectively brought modern medicine to rural China and often treated sick villagers as much as wounded soldiers. His selfless commitment made a profound impression on the Chinese people, especially CPC’s leader, Mao Zedong. Ironically, while Bethune was the man responsible for developing a mobile blood-transfusion service for frontline operations in the Spanish Civil War, he himself died of blood poisoning. A prominent Communist and veteran of the First World War, he wrote that wars were motivated by profits, not principles. Statues in his honor can be found in cities throughout China.

Bethune was concerned with the socioeconomic aspects of disease. As a concerned doctor in Montreal during the economic depression years of the 1930s, he frequently sought out the poor and gave them free medical care. He challenged his professional colleagues and agitated, without success, for the government to make radical reforms of medical care and health services in Canada. Bethune was an early proponent of socialized medicine and formed the Montreal Group for the Security of People’s Health.

Cairine Reay Mackay Wilson contributed to peace by her advocacy for women and refugees. #Canada150

She was Canada’s first female senator. Born in 1885, Cairine Reay Mackay in Montreal, she was the daughter of Jane Mackay and Robert Mackay, a Liberal Senator and personal friend of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.  In 1909, she married Norman Wilson, the Liberal Member of Parliament for Russell and they moved to Cumberland, Ontario to begin a family.  In 1918, the Wilsons moved to Ottawa, where Cairine performed extensive volunteer work. She helped found the Twentieth Century Liberal Association and the National Federation of Liberal Women of Canada, of which she was President from 1938 to 1948.

Wilson was appointed the first female senator of the country at the age of 45 in February 1930 by the government of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, just four months after the Persons Case judgment was handed down by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Previously, women had not been allowed to serve in the Senate as lower courts had ruled they were not full “persons” under the law. As president of the League of Nations Society of Canada in 1938, Senator Wilson spoke out against the Munich Agreement‘s appeasement of Hitler. During the Second World War, the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King was resistant to permitting Jewish refugees from Germany to settle in Canada, but she was able to arrange the acceptance of 100 orphans.

In 1949, at the request of King’s successor Louis St. Laurent, Wilson became Canada’s first female delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. She was the chairman of the Canadian National Committee on Refugees and the first woman to chair a Senate Standing Committee (Immigration and Labour).  She was awarded the Cross of the Knight of the Legion of Honour by France in 1950 for her work with child refugees. Wilson again made parliamentary history in 1955 when she became the first woman Deputy Speaker of the Canadian Senate.

Wilbert Loewen contributed to peace by playing a vital role in the establishment of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB). #Canada150

Loewen traveled across Canada growing support from Canadian farmers, negotiating an agreement with the Canadian Wheat Board, which helped expand the program.

Building on the vision of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), the Canadian Foodgrains Bank was established as a separate organization in 1983 to facilitate the participation of other churches and church agencies in the program.

As the CFGB’s first executive director (1983-1990), he helped it become one of the world’s largest private food-aid providers dedicated to famine relief and ending world hunger. This involved his successful negotiations with the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), to allow farmers to deliver and donate grain outside of the quota system to CWB handling facilities, and with the Canadian International Development Agency, to agree to match every CFGB donation on a four-to-one basis. A mark of the solid foundation he developed, by 2005 the CFGB had provided more than 944,000 tons of food to more than 68 countries.

Loewen’s vision and hard work played a vital role in building a solid foundation for the development of the Foodgrains Bank into one of Canada’s leading agencies dealing with global hunger.  In 2010, Loewen was the recipient of the Order of Manitoba, the province’s highest honor, largely because of the vital role he played in the establishment of the Foodgrains Bank.  Today, the Foodgrains Bank is providing over $40 million in annual assistance around the world, providing food where it is needed, and supporting the efforts of households and communities to improve their farming, livelihoods and nutrition. In 2015, over one million people were assisted in 39 countries.

The Canadian Flag contributes to peace as a symbol that demonstrates how democratic means can promote a peaceful nation. #Canada150

The first government attempt to give Canada its own flag came in 1925 when Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King established a committee to study the question. He immediately backed down when there was a general outcry against any attack on the Union Jack. He tried again in 1945 with a joint committee of the Senate and House of Commons, but support for the Union Jack remained strong.

When Lester B. Pearson, as leader of the Official Opposition, raised the flag question again in 1960, national unity was threatened by a growing separatist movement in Quebec. Many Canadians had become attached to the Canadian Red Ensign, which they believed to be their national flag, while others still clung to the Union Jack. Since 1948, Québec viewed its provincial flag, the Fleur-de-lis, as its national emblem.

Though all parties agreed that Canada should have a flag, there was no agreement on its design. Some 2,000 suggestions were submitted in 1964 and examined by a steering committee, in addition to 3,900 others, “including those that had accumulated in the Department of the Secretary of State and those from a parliamentary flag committee of 1945–1946.”

Debate in the House of Commons lasted six exhausting months and involved 308 speeches. At last, on 15 December 1964 at 2:00 a.m., the committee’s recommendation was accepted by a vote of 163 to 78. Senate approval followed on 17 December, and the royal proclamation was signed by Queen Elizabeth II on January 28, 1965.  Canada’s national flag officially unfurled on February 15, 1965 at Parliament Hill

Ernie Coombs (aka“Mr. Dressup”) contributed to peace by teaching generations how to be humble, considerate and peaceful.#Canada150

Mr. Dressup, his Tickle Trunk of costumes and his puppets Casey and Finnegan, provided quality television for children from 1967 to 1996. In over 4000 episodes, he drew pictures and created simple crafts from construction paper, yarn and glue. His show was gentle, wholesome programming that encouraged creativity and imagination.

Ernie Coombs was lured to Canada in 1963 by the progressive ideas of the public broadcasting system, beginning his career as an assistant puppeteer on a CBC series that featured another soon-to-be-legendary kid’s entertainer, Fred Rogers. He became a Canadian citizen in 1994.

Coombs received the Earle Grey Award for excellence in TV in 1994, a Gemini award for best performance in a children’s program, and the Order of Canada in 1996.  He retired from Mr. Dressup in 1996 after which he performed charity work, appeared in theatrical productions for children and made personal appearances around the country for all his fans, young and old.  Judith Lawrence, the puppeteer who created Casey, chose to make the character gender neutral so that it would appeal to both girls and boys.

“Keep your crayons sharp, your sticky tape untangled, and always put the tops back on your markers.”      

– Mr. Dressup

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (d. 1893), an American-Canadian, contributed to peace by her anti-slavery activism. #Canada150

Mary Ann Shadd Cary was anti-slavery activist, journalist, publisher, teacher and lawyer. She was the first black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada when she started the black newspaper, The Provincial Freeman, a Toronto based weekly publication for African Americans, especially escaped slaves. She wrote many of the articles herself, and often returned to the United States to gather information for the paper.  In addition to creating a newspaper, Shadd Cary established a school in Windsor, Ontario that was open to children of all races. While living in Canada, she met Thomas F. Cary. The couple married in 1856 and had two children. He died only a few years later.

The eldest of 13 children, Shadd Cary was born into a free African-American family. Her father worked for the abolitionist newspaper called the Liberator run by famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and provided help to escaped slaves as a member of the Underground Railroad. Shadd Cary would grow up to follow in her father’s footsteps.

Shadd Cary was educated at a Quaker school in Pennsylvania, and she later started her own school for African Americans. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, she went to Canada with one of her brothers. Not long after, the entire Shadd family moved there. In 1852, Shadd Cary wrote a report encouraging other African Americans to make the trek north to Canada.

When the Civil War broke out, Mary Ann Shadd Cary returned to the United States to help in the war effort. In 1863, she worked as a recruiting officer for the Union Army in Indiana, and encouraged African Americans to join the fight against the Confederacy and against slavery. After the war, Cary became a pioneering spirit in a new direction, earning a law degree in 1883 from Howard University. She was the second African-American woman in the United States to earn a law degree.

Want to learn more? Here is a video about Mary Ann on the Toronto Sun website.

Canada’s Refugee Policy contributes to peace by welcoming the world’s displaced, especially those fleeing war and persecution.#Canada150

Mass migrations to Canada include the following:

• 3,000 Black Loyalists (1776), 35,000 Loyalists (1783), 170,000 Scots (1815-70)
• 170,000 Ukrainians (1891-1913), 119,770 Italians (1900-14)
• 250,000 displaced persons from Europe as a result of WW II
• 37,000 Hungarians (1956), 11,000 Czechs (1968-69), 7000 Muslims from Uganda (1972-73)
• 60,000 Vietnamese (1979-80)
• Canada has also welcomed large numbers of Asians, East and West Indians, Irish, Doukhobors, American war resistors and currently Syrian refugees.

The Trans-Canada Trail (now also being promoted as “The Great Trail”) and the countless people who are helping to make it happen contributes to peace by connecting Canadians to eachother and to the natural landscape.

“It’s a tangible link and a tie that binds us together. What better gift can we give to each other than a national trail that connects us all?”          -Deborah Apps, Trans Canada Trail CEO and president

• To be complete for Canada’s 150th birthday, the approximately 24,000 km Great Trail links 15,000 communities from coast to coast to coast. Spanning all provinces and territories, the Trail’s nearly 430 sections follow waterways, roadways and footpaths through urban centres and rural areas.
• The Great Trail passes through historic settlements, highlights the railway’s trestles and tunnels, and follows First Nations paddling routes.
• The multi-use trails are ideal for explorers on foot, bikes, horseback, canoes or kayaks, skis and snowmobiles.
• 80% of Canadians live within 30 minutes of the Trail.
• Imagined 25 years ago in 1992, the Trans Canada Trail is a not-for-profit organization.
• A mobile app, called The Great Trail – Explore Canada, offers three features:
  • A zoom in and out map, with self-locating GPS
  • A measure function which calculates distances from point to point
  • An activity tracker which reports the time, elevation and distance travelled.